Based in Silverdale, Washington US outfit Fractal Rock was initially formed by Joel Martin, Dave Hawkins and Robert Westcott, and as time went by Kristine Tibbs, Deena Lien-Richards and Dave Turissini would join. They started recording their debut album in 2009, and in the summer of 2010 Fractal Rock self-released their debut effort Fractals and Filigree.

The band have chosen to let anyone interested download the digital version of the album for free, and their philosophy seems to be to get better known rather than to rigidly pursue the financial aspect of being a recording artist. At least for the time being.

ProgArchives features your band’s
biography, but since we’ve the pleasure of having you here, give us
the skinny. Why the name Fractal Rock? And
why—with all the choices out there—do you play this kind of
music?

Joel
Martin (keyboard & engineer):
Well, our bio has changed a little. Julando Samson was set to play
with us but ended up needing to go in a different direction. Those
kinds of changes are the toughest for any band, because on top of
needed skill (if not talent), there has to be a chemistry between the
players: artistically, psychologically, philosophically, and, of
course, musically. (A
voice from the back calls out: “Don’t forget SEXUALLY!”)
Then we landed a new lead guitarist, Jeff Wittekind, a very talented
man, B.A. in music, sight reads, plays in several jazz bands, just a
real boon to all of us. Other than that, I’d say we’re basically
the same people … you know, except for us being completely
different, older, and yeah, dare I say it, smarter, wiser, and right
now, at the top of our game as artists and musicians. (A
voice from the back calls out: “And SEXUALLY!”)

As
for the band’s name, ‘Fractal’ represents the inherent
diversity that lies around the edges of music, while recognizing the
same thing that Leibniz, Riemann, Mozart, Keppler, Beethoven,
Einstein and others perceived, that underlying the universe, and all
that lies within—including music—there’s a symmetry, an order …
there is math!

But
what about where there doesn’t seem to be symmetry? Where things
are rough, appear unnatural … are out of place, live on the edge?

Turns
out there’s order there, too. And it can be demonstrated,
expressed … in the form of fractals, rough or fragmented shapes
that are reduced-sized copies of the whole. Think of it as there
being a pattern beneath seeming chaos. With our music, in part,
that’s what we do. Like Mozart, or perhaps like Mozart dropping
acid, we work on variations of a theme. The thing is, our variations
aren’t just alterations of notes or musical progression, but rather
entire soundscapes. (A
voice calls out from the back: “Sexsca—!” Shuddup,
Joel yells.)
Some might say ‘sexscapes.’

Some
people get caught up on concept albums, but why? First, though
there’s been some good ones, for the most part, they’re pretty
dated. And second, let’s get real. If Picasso’s stuff all
looked the same, none of us would ever have heard of him.

With
art, there are basically two paths, one involves making money, such
as with jingles, commercial art, ad-work, etc, the other’s about
expression. It’s the rare goose that marries both. But that, of
course, is our goal. We aren’t averse to making some coin, but at
the same time, we want the freedom to express ourselves as arteeests.
Progressive and experimental rock, acid rock, etc., not having many
boundaries, offers this kind of freedom. Plus, it’s fun to tinker
with—to find the fractals that yearn to be expressed. And people
who’ve caught the taste for it, don’t mind the experimentation.

With
myself, I happen to like free jazz, a form which many can’t seem to
stand more than a coupla minutes. With the rest of the band, though,
we work more of a crossover so as to broaden the audience. Prog’s
the nexus where we can not only blend our varied musical interests,
but where we can also shamelessly lift from the greats: Mozart, Bach,
Liszt and the rest, and then shred their work. (A voice calls out
from the back: “Shred ’em into FRACTALS!”)

Dave Turissini (bass guitarist):
The name was chosen before my being part of the band, but I was fine
with the handle. What drew me to the group was the fusion of
classical themes with rock instrumentation. I’ve always liked
music that was a sensory experience, that, you know, kept the
listener a bit off-balance and did the unexpected.

With the style, well, I wanted the
challenge. Most of my life I’ve been playing top-40 and mainstream
pop. But in my heart, I’ve always been a what-if man.

A what-if man?

Bill Bruford (William Scott Bruford,
original drummer for Yes) was recently
quoted as saying, “I’ve always been the guy to ask: ‘What if we
play this in 5/4 instead of 4/4?’ Or, ‘What happens if we play
this chord progression backwards?’”

And that’s it, being a what-if
as an artist; that’s the heart of all art.

What do you mean?

Easy. Without that central question,
there’d never be anything new or different.

How’d
you come to be in the band?

Kristine
Tibbs (vocalist and lyricist and band-hottie):
Truth is, Joel heard me sing a couple Christmas songs and asked me
if I had ever considered singingprogressive
rock. My response? “Uh, no.” Then, shocking me further, he
handed me some music and told me to write the lyrics. “Yeah,
right,” I said. But I went for it.

At
first I was overwhelmed. There wasn’t any way in Hell I could come
up with melodies, let alone putting down some words, but I
persevered, till one day, outta the blue, the lines started to come,
flowed even, and I’ve been working ever since. And I discovered
something.

See,
as a kid, I hated acid rock. And, really, I suppose I could say that
I still do. But such a line is akin to a person saying that they
don’t like food. Well, there’s a lot of different kinds of food
out there, isn’t there? Coming together with these particular
noiseicians, I’ve found a niche I can grind with.

Dave Hawkins (guitarist): For
myself, I love alternative/progressive-type music: for me that is:
King Crimson, Adrian Belew, Porcupine Tree, as long as
it’s different than the main stream (with due nods to Led
Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, and a lot from the ’60s and ’70s).
Coming from the psychedelic era (and perhaps never leaving it), I’m
not shy around any form of good music (especially new sounds and
progressions), regardless of genre or type, but cringe at the thought
of anything that’s cookie cutter, dressed, or assembly-line
stamped. There’s groups out there, like boy bands, and single
artists, too, often female, that are nothing more than Santa Claus
performers … entertainers whose entire shtick was birthed out of
some white-board plan out of an executive meeting, with everything
derivative, fluff, glammed, and worse (if there is a cardinal sin in
music, this has got to be it), artificial.

Robert Westcott (drummer):Fractal Rock ... it’s all about fractals, right? Like a
portion of something that’s from a whole, yet standing different or
unique. Each instrument … ever layer of sound is a
unique fractal of each song. Then, at the end, they bond
together in an artistic web that expresses a piece (a fractal) of
our souls. A piece of the whole. The same, yet
unique ... just like everyone around us.

… and what is your musical
background?

Joel:
Four or five I started learning piano, and was able to read music
fairly well by the time I was six. Introverted, and hitting the
first grade a bit on the young side, I found solace with the 88’s,
and began receiving training to develop my ear, and in short order,
could pick out tunes without any sheet music. By the second grade, I
was writing simple tunes—mostly two-note left hand, and three-note
right—and, by happenstance, learned to listen for moving tones,
drop roots, and counter harmonies. Age nine, I joined the school
orchestra, and continued in school bands well beyond high school,
while partaking of college-level music courses whenever the
opportunity came up. To date, I’ve been playing the bassoon for
36-years, bass for 33, piano for 43, and the drums for almost as
long. Do I consider myself a brilliant player? (Joel
smiles.) No,
just a great experimenter and appreciator (the latter meaning I have
an almost supernatural ability to detect musical sh*te), which helps
me to connect—as an engineer and a musician—with my fellow
players.

I
do, though, have an opinion that it takes three things for a person
to succeed as a serious artist/craftsman. One, they have to be able
to read and write music. With all due respect to garage musicians
who solely know how to play, the reality is the serious artist must
be able to pen down their music in such a way that it can be
recreated later, by themselves and/or others. Two, a person must
have a sound understanding of music theory; and three, know how to
use a metronome.

Kris:
I’ve been singing my whole life, classical and Broadway. Give me a
Broadway song, and I’ll belt it with the best of ’em. Rock’s
the new beast on the block.

Dave Hawkins: Started drumming
shortly after learning how to pee, and the guitar off and on for
almost as long, but when I decided to write, I chose to focus on
guitar work, and did—for at least the past 12-years. And though
I’m not as versatile as some (we all have our gods), and have no
plans to stop improving, I’ve found a place now to call my own.
One of the things—a strong-suit, really, dare I say?—I find
intriguing (and beneficial), is playing the guitar while keeping the
drums in mind, in terms of rhythm and syncopation. After all, if no
man’s an island, neither is an instrument! This has been not only
an aid with my own writing, but also when I get to play with others,
especially with such an inventive drummer as Robert (Westcott).

Robert: Thanks to my older
brother, been playing drums since high school (even got to record our
class’s graduating song), back in 1986. I learned a few cover
tunes over the years but never got into a cover band. Instead,
I’ve always had the pleasure of being involved with projects
dealing with original music. Every musician, if not every artist
period, despite the medium, starts, to one degree or another, by
mimicking a great. And why not? Gotta have a base to project from.
But then, a person’s gotta find themselves. And in the course of
things, what they need to focus their heart and soul into—their
passion. Of a truth, they have to put such things on the line, even
make themselves vulnerable in the pursuit of their craft. Working
with original music is a must-do to have that happen.

After high school, I joined the Navy,
and while serving, played with an original band for a couple of
years. Navy-time done, I auditioned for Nyxie, a great
project that introduced me to Julando Samson, a very unique
guitarist, and one whom I’ve had the pleasure of recording numerous
drum tracks for. Since ’05, I’ve also been part of a drum-line
called Pacific Alliance (where I really learned how different being
part of a drum corps is to being a kit player).

Please give us your long or brief
thoughts on your debut album Fractals And Filigree
released this year.

Joel:
Let’s get geeky. It was a bitch to engineer and mix … the drum
set alone had 16-mics, with some of the songs having in excess of
40-tracks. Hell, Cyclone
has about 54! That’s a lot of mixing. Thank God for the producer
version of Sonar 8.0. Plus, know that everything we did was
mixed-on-the-fly, meaning there was no destructive editing. To pull
that off, ya gotta have some serious computing power. In our case,
we used a top-line quad core with a raid, along with two dual cores.
We spent 840-ear-wreckin’-hours in the studio producing this
holy-of-holies. When all was done, I was wiped—and smiling. We
all were. There’s been some detractors (there always are),
bitching that the work’s ‘too artsy,’ but that’s been fine.
We understand what that means. Code-talk for ‘they’ couldn’t
have done it. For us … well, we love the work, are proud …
and’re putting it out there for FREE! For two reasons. One, to
gift our fans, and all the soon-to-bes, and as a big
you’re-number-one to all the neck-waggers who didn’t think we
could pull it off.

Dave
Turissini: The
album was a lot of fun to do, and with the entire project, I was just
amazed at how it drew from all across the musical spectrum, was just
an absolute panoply of instrumentation, style … hell, just about
everything but country, one total eclectic feast.

When
asked about it, I usually respond with: Imagine what would happen if
Frank Zappa would’ve somehow gotten into Modest Mussorgsky’s
(Mussorgsky: a
Russian composer and musical innovator in the 1800’s)
brain—while having access to lots of keyboards!

Another
way to look at it might be as a mashing together of Gentle
Giant, Yezda Urfa, and Tony
Orlando and Dawn.

Kris:
Personally, I’m in the company of geniuses. Joel is the most
artistically analytical person Ihave
ever met. A Mozart living in our century. Dave Hawkins is amazing.
He doesn’t play the guitar, he paints soundscapes with it.Honest, there’s a little
genius in all my bandmates. Deena adds a whole different
dimension to the songs....

I
love the music. It’s a lot of fun and has opened my mind to so much
creativity ... it’s liberating.

Dave Hawkins:Fractals and
Filigree exposed my strengths and weaknesses, and gave me the
first real Jack Nicholson moment I’ve had in a long time. It made
me want to become a better player—and by the end of it all, I had.

Robert: We wanted to highlight
our diversity, and connect with both the average listener as well as
with fans of the more complex, and we pulled it off, filling up every
ounce of space on the CD with 17 songs.

And the feedback’s been phenomenal.
Some have compared us to Yes, which is a helluva compliment,
and I can hear why. The extreme classical and prog rock influence is
there, similar to Yes, but without their brand of complex
vocal layers. Then again, there’s stuff that brings to mind TSO.
Everybody’s influenced by something. But in the end, who do we
sound like? Fractal Rock! We’re unique, and that’s a big
positive in anyone’s book. We’re not looking to fit a mold; with
Fractals And Filigree, we made our own, physically and
mentally pouring in everything we had, and then we broke it, and
that’s the paradigm we’re going to follow, each and every
time—(he smiles) the next project’s already rolling out.

Describe your writing … your
creative process?

Deena Lien-Richards (lyricist,
percussionist, and band’s fashion-guru): A very tough question.
Let me quote what Stephen King has to say about writing in his
book/memoir On Writing: “Fiction writers (sub in here
the term songwriters), present company included, don’t understand
very much about what they do—not why it works when it’s good, not
why it doesn’t when it’s bad.” I agree with King’s words.
The process is dynamic, fluid, and completely unpredictable.
Sometimes the mojo’s just there, and the work’s simple, and with
other songs, a person would rather get a colonoscopy done by a bunch
of rabid gondoliers.

The basic approach I take, however, is
probably the same as many, that of looking at the song’s title,
seeing or ‘hearing’ or, even better, feeling what the
message might be … and, of course, listening to the song (if it’s
already been more-or-less finished) to see if the title even fits or
might in-and-of itself be a speed bump to whatever message needs to
get married to the music. Other occasions, I take mental bus trips,
tours, if you please, back through my life experience, and then just
believe for the muse to hit. And yes, there’s also dreams—waking
and sleeping—that can be harnessed for good story/song/and sonnet.
The lyrics to “Gossamer Thread” came from a dream where I was a
spider living in a medieval castle, now how crazy is that? One of
the biggest keys of the whole business is: WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN.
Nothing’s worse than having some lines, a rhyme, a turn of phrase
that’s just spot-on, and then one forgets … didn’t have that
notepad handy on the side of the bed when they woke up at 3:00 A.M.
Things, words, melodies can hit anytime, anywhere, and under any
circumstance. The artist needs to make sure they can take it down
and file it away. You never know when it might come in handy.

Joel:
There is no one way. But often, the launching pad’s some fragment
I’ve put together, or from Dave Hawkins. Afterward, we see how it
might be woven or morphed with something classical. Dave and I both
religiously listen to a lot of great stuff, too many to list now, but
certainly the historicals: Listz, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, the rest,
and then the modern classicals: Yes, Gentle Giant,
Hendrix, King Crimson, Zepp, Uriah Heep,
as well as other great hippie-esque musicians. Then, once Dave and I
have some kind of base structure, we turn it over to our bass and
drummer and they set in their teeth (and, man, are they sharp). When
they get done, the rough mix gets moved to our vocalists. There, the
melodies and lyrics get put into place and massaged, and when that
doesn’t work, they start to amputate and graft. When there’s an
opportunity, I’ll hash out part of a melody, typically because it’s
a natural part of some classical progression. There’s only been a
coupla times we’ve changed musical structure to accommodate lyrics,
and even then all we did was add a chorus, or extend a couple of
measures. The idea, of course, is not to come up with something
boring. We don’t write music for lyrics, or vice versa. By the
time any particular piece is close to done, the goal’s been to have
an interwoven work that’s seamless, and self-reinforcing, meaning
that every part’s a part, but collectively … well, we want what
every music-addict desires: Something that transcends.

Kris:
To sound as if I’m honoring the ’60’s (which was for music,
like the industrial revolution was for mass production) inspiration
comes from everywhere: the sky, the water, the moon, life—the
spirit of the moment. But that’s not true. A
flower’s not sentient. It doesn’t have a message that it’s
consciously trying to project to the universe. It’s just a flower,
existing, and doing what it’s supposed to do. More to the heart of
the issue is the perceptions of the artist, the viewer, the
listener—the feeler. They have to have their antennae up,
their blinders off … they have to be in a place where they can
receive inspiration, where, with whatever they’re feeling (these
emotions can be anywhere on the spectrum: joy, rage, jealously,
sadness), doing, observing, they’ve got to be vigilant for what can
be culled. Another way to look at it would be the cliché: Beauty’s
in the eye of the beholder. Well, so is inspiration. Most people
are familiar with the term intelligence quotient (I.Q.), and without
a doubt, being smart’s a plus. But for artists, and writers, in
particular, there has to be a healthy and active E.Q.—emotional
quotient.

My biggest hurdle has been in following
William Faulkner’s advice: “In writing, you must kill your
darlings.” See, when it comes to writing, revising, polishing,
refining, the artist has to be willing to murder, or cut something
they’ve gotten attached to when the piece/section doesn’t serve
the greater good. That’s a toughie, and yes, sometimes a
tear-producing event. In this, having great collaborators is a boon.
With Joel, others, sometimes they point something out that isn’t
working, and the water works get goin’, but what’s really
happening is the pulling out of a hammer and anvil, and then the heat
gets turned on; and what was fine before, valuable ore, becomes
something better—forged art!

Dave Hawkins: Rome wasn’t
built in a day, and neither are our songs. Joel brings in a part, a
fractal, if you will, then I do, or vice versa, then we work, chew,
gnaw on a piece till it’s shredded. We build a chunk up, then
reverse-engineer it back down. When we like something, we need to
know why. Identify what’s working, or … what exactly is keeping
something from bringing out the purity of the sound we’re shooting
for. It’s laborious, it’s wonderful. And when everyone in the
band and our passel of groupies has put in their 4.5-cents’ worth,
and we’ve landed a winner—it’s a high like no other. I’m a
grown man, a mature man, but with music, with my passion, I’m still
like a little boy, enamored with the beauty of it, the process, and
though I’m good at what I know, the end-product is often of such
quality, I’m humbled when I think that I had a hand in it.

With the creative process, a person
needs to recognize that there’s two halves to the brain, the logic
side and the feeling side (how’s that for simplification)—and
both are needed! Not just one. There’s times when the process is
work, workworkwork, and logic’s needed. After all, there are
notes, and certain notes produce certain constant sounds, arranging
such-and-such together will a-l-w-a-y-s produce a given effect. But
then—like with sports and other endeavors—there is getting into
the ZONE. And when that happens, when a person’s writing, playing,
whatever, they have to be willing to ride with it. And they’ll
need band members to let them—to trust them. Marrying the two’s
important, that right and left side process. Revision, rewrites,
tinkering, all that, is NOT a rebuke of the imaginative right side,
but rather an exercise of one’s mechanical imagination. In short:
When needed, workworkwork, when not, play and let the magic
happen.

Robert: The most important part
of the process is starting with the music first, and adding the
vocals at the end. This can be aggravating for our vocalists,
especially during the times when the lyrics are going through the
revision process, but it’s a necessary hassle. It’s the rare
duck that anything’s ever produced (of value) without blood, sweat,
and tears—and that’s okay. I enjoy the labored, and beautiful,
and organized chaos that precedes the final ‘baby.’ Growth is
birthed from work. One of the benefits to the way we work, is that,
indeed, we all get to work. Nobody skates, nobody rests on
their laurels—and better, no one’s ignored. Everyone’s got
their heartprint stamped on the music.

For those not familiar with your
work, how would you describe your music, and what are your
influences?

Joel: We’re a crossover prog
band, experimental to a point, with roots grounded in classical.
Influences are tough to pin down because they run the gambit, Yes,
K.C. (King Crimson), Floyd. What we don’t want is to be ripping
off any modern prog. With the old stuff, we lift away, and why not?
Mozart’s been dead for 220-years.

Kris: Our music’s so eclectic,
I think of it as a new genre: Progressive Plaid. With plaid, you’ve
got horizontal and vertical lines, many patterns, colors. That’s
us: Fractal Rock. There’s patterns in our music (that’s what
music is, patterned sound), but not the same pattern, over and over
and over and over and over again—that’s progressive-sh*t.

Dave Hawkins: Different. That’s
us. Hard to peg, dynamic sound. With music, there’s always a
certain amount of similarity because you’re dealing with
more-or-less standardized instruments and the human voice, and to
varying degrees, music can, and does, carry signature sounds, in
terms of genre/style/influence … but with, say, Kris and Deena’s
vocals and lyrical content, their work is anything but the same ol’
same ol’ derivative bullsh*t, was like nothing I’d heard in quite
some time, and with the work on our album, thing went, musically,
right where I wanna live—on the brink of insanity.

Robert: Not an easy question …
depends on the song. The knee-jerk answer, of course, would be
classical and rock (not to be confused with classic rock), and
certainly groups such as King Crimson, Yes, and other ’70’s
prog bands. The thing is, our goal, and something I believe
we’re succeeding at, is to put out music that’ll be timeless, and
continually relevant.

You’ve released Fractals
And Filigree as a free download through Jamendo, as well
as your own Web site. Why release a whole album? Was it just to get
the word out and perhaps score some gigs?

Joel: Fractals And Filigree’s
available from a number of sources: MadeLoud, Grooveshark,
SoundClick, and, of course, BitTorrent. And no … wasn’t for the
gigs. Instead, we wanted to groove our music to as many ears as
possible, as fast as possible. And we have. To date, F & F’s
been downloaded more than 35,000 times.

With playing live, we’re going wait
till we’ve got between 40-60 songs that can be done outside the
studio. Our timetable’s running to about three years before we’re
going to be ready. And why? The complexity, and that with both the
music, and the gear itself. It takes days in the studio just to
stage the gear and mics, and sometimes that’s just for say … the
drums alone. Synchronizing that kind of attention to detail for a
live-venue’s an awesome pursuit, but it’s also one we’re going
to be well-prepared for. Let’s just say, when we pull back the
curtain, we’re not going to f**k it up.

Kris: For those out there
working their music full-time, God bless ’em, that’s wonderful.
With us, money’s icing on the cake. For now, the big thing’s the
joy of sharing the music.

Dave Hawkins: There’s a beauty
to studio work that’s different from the stage. With the former,
we’ve produced a work of art! With the latter, our fans can know
that when they hear of us ready to headline, we’re going to be
doing the same—but in their face!

Robert: Some might argue about
the wisdom of giving out 17-songs. After all, that’s
representative of a lot time and work. But right now, exposure’s
key. People need to find out we exist, and just what it is they can
hear. With the digital resources available, for artists, it’s:
Adapt or or die. Plus, with the Net, we’re able to track
our music, focus the marketing, interact with our fans, the whole
sha-bang!—and on a global level. Really, for musicians, there’s
never been a better time throughout human history than right now.
When the day comes for us playing live, our audience can expect at
least a two-hour show of some fine-ass musical mayhem.

Joel: Just want to lay down the
challenge to everyone out there who digs prog. Check out our music.
Download it for free. If you love it, pass the word, friend us on
Facebook, and, by all means, drop us a line, commenting on our site
(http://fractalroack.pigboatrecording.com),
or sending us an e-mail. We do our best to answer all
correspondence.

Kris: For me, it’s been about
having a good time, and then having something to show for it—a
finished product. Fractal Rock’s opened up an entirely new world
for me, and I want as many others as possible to join in and be a
part of the ride.

Robert: Just want to thank
ProgArchives for the interview, and for all they do for the bands and
fans out there. For me, these past few years has been a blast, and
all I can say is, as much as the people have Fractals And Filigree
to love, wait’ll they see us live!

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